OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

141

of completing their success with the return ofday. As they depended much more on theirown valour, than on the experience or the abi-lities of their chief, they silenced by their cla-mours his timid remonstrances; and rushingwith fury to the charge, filled up the ditch,broke down the rampart, and dispersed them-selves through the tents to recruit their ex-hausted strength, and to enjoy the rich harvestof their labours. But the prudent Sapor hadwatched the moment of victory. His army, ofwhich the greater part, securely posted on theheights, had been spectators of the action, ad-vanced in silence, and under the shadow of thenight; and his Persian archers, guided by theillumination of the camp, poured a shower ofarrows on a disarmed and licentious crowd.The sincerity of history" declares that the Ro-mans were vanquished with a dreadful slaugh-ter, and that the flying remnant of the legionswas exposed to the most intolerable hardships.Even the tenderness of panegyric, confessingthat the glory of the emperor was sullied by thedisobedience of his soldiers, chooses to draw aveil over the circumstances of this melancholyretreat. Yet one of those venal orators, sojealous of the fame of Constantius , relates withamazing coolness an act of such incrediblecruelty, as, in the judgment of posterity, mustimprint a far deeper stain on the honour of theimperial name. The son of Sapor, the heir of

" Aeeninii nocturna concertatione pugnatum est, nostrortim copiisingenti strage confosais. Ammian. xviii, 5. See likewise Eutropius ,x, 10, and S. Rufus, c. 27.

CHAP.

XVIII.